Posted by: Vantika on: 29 January 2012
The market for sweetly named smart-phone assistants is heating up, as Siri, Apple’s iPhone-based virtual helper, just got a new “frenemy” named Evi. Created by True Knowledge, a Cambridge, U.K.-based semantic technology startup, Evi, like Siri, can answer questions posed aloud in a conversational manner. But unlike Siri, which is only loaded on the latest iPhone, Evi is available as an app for the iPhone and phones running Google’s Android software. Read more
Posted by: Vantika on: 19 January 2012
Virent, a biofuels company based in Madison, Wisconsin, has developed a potentially inexpensive way to make gasoline and other valuable chemicals out of grass and wood chips. Its approach reduces costs by simplifying or eliminating expensive processing steps, and by using natural gas to increase the amount of fuel that can be made from a given amount of biomass. Read more
Posted by: Vantika on: 10 October 2011
In 2007, Apple founder Steve Jobs told the world that his company’s phones would be controlled with “the best pointing device in the world … our fingers.”
Today, his company announced that users of the next iPhone, the 4S, will be able to use their voices to control it, too.
Holding down the “home” button on the new iPhone 4S, available in the U.S. starting on October 14, summons a “personal assistant” known as Siri that can understand commands given in English, French, or German. It responds in a conversational style in both text and synthesized speech.
Demonstrations on stage at the launch event at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California, saw Siri handling questions including, “What is the weather like today?” to which it responded by displaying and speaking a forecast for the owner’s current location. When the question was posed more conversationally, as “Do I need a raincoat today?” Siri responded in a similar manner: “It sure looks like rain today.” Read more
Posted by: Vantika on: 1 October 2011
The Kindle Fire tablet doesn’t quite match the aesthetics of an iPad. It doesn’t sport the same delicate curves or metallic body, for example. But most people won’t care. What’s most exciting is that it comes close to matching the iPad experience for a fraction of the price—$199 compared to $499 for the basic iPad 2—and it offers easy access to Amazon’s vast array of digital content. Like the iPad, the Fire has a color touch screen, can play video, and runs apps. It uses Google’s Android operating system, but it’s a heavily modified version of that system, so the experience is very different from that on other Android tablets. But the most important difference is Amazon’s use of cloud technology and the content libraries it’s built up over the last few years to deliver content to the Fire. Read more
Posted by: Vantika on: 14 July 2011
The automakers Volvo and Jaguar are testing the possibility of using flywheels instead of batteries in hybrid electric vehicles to aid acceleration and help engines operate more efficiently. The devices could reduce fuel consumption by 20 percent and would cost a third as much as batteries. Volvo will begin road-testing a car with the technology this fall. Read more
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